cicada

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. Any of various insects of the family Cicadidae, having a broad head, membranous wings, and in the male a pair of resonating organs that produce a characteristic high-pitched, droning sound. Also called cicala.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. any of several insects of the order Hemiptera, suborder Auchenorrhyncha, with small eyes wide apart on the head and transparent well-veined wings.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. Any species of the genus Cicada or of the family Cicadidae. They are large hemipterous insects, with nearly transparent wings. The male makes a shrill sound by peculiar organs in the under side of the abdomen, consisting of a pair of stretched membranes, acted upon by powerful muscles. A noted American species (Cicada septendecim) is called the seventeen year locust. Another common species is the dogday cicada.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. A popular name of many insects belonging to different orders, Hemiptera and Orthoptera, which make a rhythmical creaking or chirping noise; a locust, grasshopper, or cricket. In this sense the word has no definite zoölogical signification.

n. In zoology: [capitalized] The typical genus of homopterous hemipterous insects of the family Cicadidæ.

The air is full of the rattle of the cicada, which is like the sound of a loud cricket, or the 'r-- r' of a corncraik's note going on for ever and ever; and the house lizard in the church goes cheep -- cheep -- cheep every now and then.

A Spanish lexicographer of authority says that the cigar has the form of a "cicada" of paper, and, on the whole, it is highly probable that the likeness of the roll of tobacco-leaf to the cylindrical body of the insect (_cigarra_) was the reason that the "cigarro" was so called.